I saw this with an opera-loving friend when it came out in early 1956, and even then, our 17-year-old selves thought it was pretty hokey. Which did not stop us for one minute from each going out and purchasing the LP soundtrack, to which I still listen to this day. The problem with opera-based films, and especially with opera-based films starring Mario Lanza, is that there are usually two factions at work - 1) those who can't stand the fact that arguably the greatest lyric tenor voice of its time was 'misused' and hardly entered the legitimate realms of classical singing, and 2) those who love this singer so much that they simply cannot countenance any even minor denigration of their hero. I hope I'm one of the rare people who can legitimately inhabit both factions, meaning that while I can rue the loss of his voice to the world's opera and concert stages, I can be legitimately grateful for all he meant to my generation, as it was Lanza who brought a then-12 year old movie-goer to Opera with THE GREAT CARUSO in 1951, and I still wallow in the sound of his voice some 67 years later. All that said, I am writing this because there is an absolute plethora of misinformation contained in many of the two dozen or so reviews under this title, and while we are usually admonished not to use our reviews as a battering ram against those of others, sometimes it is really necessary. I speak not of opinion. Everybody deserves to have his or her own. I speak of factual errors and assumptions, although one or two opinions may be so extreme that they deserve at least a bit of admonishment, so here goes. (And if this goes on past my allotted number of words, please look for a Part Two, which I will surely do, since that which is important enough to do at all, is important enough to do completely.)
lanzafan - Lanza does not sing falsetto, but mezza voce, which is not at all the same thing. I cannot recall Lanza ever singing falsetto. His may have been ONE of the voices of the century, but not THE voice of the century. Even if you really think he was better than, say, Caruso and Pavarotti, how does one compare his voice with those of Kirsten Flagstad or Rosa Ponselle, Ezio Pinza or Nazzareno de Angelis, Mattia Battistini or Titta Ruffo? You see the problem! You must have legitimate standards for comparison, and listening to all the available evidence before making such a statement is mandatory.
Derek McGovern - "Nessun dorma" is not, I think, so much strained, as simply bland (an unusual criticism for any Lanza performance), but the aria was not nearly as well known during the 1955 recording sessions as it would become over the next 60 years, so he may not have heard many other versions when he did this one. You can think his "Dio! mi potevi, scagliar!" is the best one ever done, but how many others have you heard? I have heard hundreds, and I could easily name 30 or 40 equal or better ones, most especially from Martinelli, Melchior and Del Monaco among the better known names close to Lanza's own time.
Greg Coutoure - "We weren't nearly as accepting of non-Anglo leading ladies back then". That may depend on your definition of "Anglo", but I would posit that we very much accepted Lupe Velez, Rita Hayworth, Leslie Caron. Gina Lollogbrigida, Ingrid Bergman and Sophie Loren back then, to name only the first half-dozen that come to mind. Mario Lanza's father did not remarry but stayed married to Mario's mother until the day she died in 1970. If you saw ML's Cadillac parked in or in front of his father's driveway, it was actually parked in or in front of his parents' driveway.
BobLib - Vincent Price does not play a music critic in the film. And I've never heard that Lanza was a fan of James Cain's SERENADE and tried to get M-G-M to make it years earlier. Given its homosexuality theme, the thought is totally ridiculous. (In addition to which, I can't imagine Lanza wanting to play a lead of dubious sexuality at any time in his short life!)
RBHB - "The voice of Mario Lanza is the greatest in history..." (see lanzafan above)
bkoganbing - Lanza never made a commercial recording of "La danza"; the three available versions consist of two from the soundtracks of THE GREAT CARUSO and SERENADE, and the third is from his radio show, and in all three he sang only the first half of the song (only God knows why, unless he was just too lazy to learn the second half).
MARIO GAUCI - Lanza was not an Italian tenor; he was an American tenor. Curtis Bernhardt had no power to have anyone fired at M-G-M, let alone its biggest male star. He and Lanza had major differences over the tenor's pre-recorded singing of "Beloved", and Lanza walked off the production, which was the last straw for Schary and M-G-M. At that point, Bernhardt certainly had a legitimate grievance, but he did not have Lanza fired; Schary did. Current Maltese tenor Joseph Calleia does not "go by" that name. It IS his name. Monteil was not Anthony Mann's wife at the time the film was made. They married in 1957.
jjaxn - Joan Fontaine had played hard-edged villainesses before LETTER TO AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (for example, as the murderess in IVY) and would continue to play soft-edged types for years after LETTER (for example, Rowena in IVANHOE, the concert pianist in SEPTEMBER AFFAIR, etc.). The actress who really had a quick makeover from mostly sweet blonde and/or brunette near-ingenues to black haired femme fatales in Noirs was Joan Bennett.
blanche-2 - Lanza does not walk off the stage "right before he strangles Desdemona"; this is their Act 3 confrontation. He doesn't kill her until their 2nd confrontation late in Act 4 - with intermission better than an hour later! I've been listening to him for 67 years, have everything he ever did, and Lanza does not "scoop a lot", and certainly not in the sense of scooping as a means to get to an otherwise difficult top note, and if he tends to "oversing" (whatever that may mean), what is to be said about Del Monaco, Rysanek and Bastianini (naming only singers of his own time, all three of whom were very great opera stars)? As for prior "divas and divos" of the silver screen, I might point out that Nino Martini played the same kind of working man of the earth tenor roles in the 1930s as did Lanza two decades later. The comment that voices shouldn't be darkening at 34 is somewhat nonsensical. Voices darken when they darken, some early, some late. Domingo was singing Otello at 34 even before his voice darkened appropriately, and he's still singing at 77. Vinay, a famous OTELLO, was a famous Otello from his 36th year, and his voice was so dark he'd been singing baritone into his mid-30s. This is the first time I have ever seen an allegation of Lanza sexually harassing his female co-stars, and I would have to know where THAT came from - certainly not from Grayson, Blyth, Morrow (he didn't like Morrow because she smoked!), Fontaine, Montiel or Allasio.
atlasmb - Lanza was not the PREMIER tenor of his time. He was the most famous one (thanks to Hollywood), but that is not the same thing at all. "Premier" would indicate that he was the most important opera tenor on the planet, against whom all others were compared and found wanting. He was not, and they were not. Today, for example, the PREMIER tenor of his time is probably Jonas Kaufmann, but the most famous one is surely Andrea Bocelli, who is close to being a joke among serious opera lovers and musicians. Like him or not, not even detractors ever joked about Lanza's voice.
lanzafan - Lanza does not sing falsetto, but mezza voce, which is not at all the same thing. I cannot recall Lanza ever singing falsetto. His may have been ONE of the voices of the century, but not THE voice of the century. Even if you really think he was better than, say, Caruso and Pavarotti, how does one compare his voice with those of Kirsten Flagstad or Rosa Ponselle, Ezio Pinza or Nazzareno de Angelis, Mattia Battistini or Titta Ruffo? You see the problem! You must have legitimate standards for comparison, and listening to all the available evidence before making such a statement is mandatory.
Derek McGovern - "Nessun dorma" is not, I think, so much strained, as simply bland (an unusual criticism for any Lanza performance), but the aria was not nearly as well known during the 1955 recording sessions as it would become over the next 60 years, so he may not have heard many other versions when he did this one. You can think his "Dio! mi potevi, scagliar!" is the best one ever done, but how many others have you heard? I have heard hundreds, and I could easily name 30 or 40 equal or better ones, most especially from Martinelli, Melchior and Del Monaco among the better known names close to Lanza's own time.
Greg Coutoure - "We weren't nearly as accepting of non-Anglo leading ladies back then". That may depend on your definition of "Anglo", but I would posit that we very much accepted Lupe Velez, Rita Hayworth, Leslie Caron. Gina Lollogbrigida, Ingrid Bergman and Sophie Loren back then, to name only the first half-dozen that come to mind. Mario Lanza's father did not remarry but stayed married to Mario's mother until the day she died in 1970. If you saw ML's Cadillac parked in or in front of his father's driveway, it was actually parked in or in front of his parents' driveway.
BobLib - Vincent Price does not play a music critic in the film. And I've never heard that Lanza was a fan of James Cain's SERENADE and tried to get M-G-M to make it years earlier. Given its homosexuality theme, the thought is totally ridiculous. (In addition to which, I can't imagine Lanza wanting to play a lead of dubious sexuality at any time in his short life!)
RBHB - "The voice of Mario Lanza is the greatest in history..." (see lanzafan above)
bkoganbing - Lanza never made a commercial recording of "La danza"; the three available versions consist of two from the soundtracks of THE GREAT CARUSO and SERENADE, and the third is from his radio show, and in all three he sang only the first half of the song (only God knows why, unless he was just too lazy to learn the second half).
MARIO GAUCI - Lanza was not an Italian tenor; he was an American tenor. Curtis Bernhardt had no power to have anyone fired at M-G-M, let alone its biggest male star. He and Lanza had major differences over the tenor's pre-recorded singing of "Beloved", and Lanza walked off the production, which was the last straw for Schary and M-G-M. At that point, Bernhardt certainly had a legitimate grievance, but he did not have Lanza fired; Schary did. Current Maltese tenor Joseph Calleia does not "go by" that name. It IS his name. Monteil was not Anthony Mann's wife at the time the film was made. They married in 1957.
jjaxn - Joan Fontaine had played hard-edged villainesses before LETTER TO AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (for example, as the murderess in IVY) and would continue to play soft-edged types for years after LETTER (for example, Rowena in IVANHOE, the concert pianist in SEPTEMBER AFFAIR, etc.). The actress who really had a quick makeover from mostly sweet blonde and/or brunette near-ingenues to black haired femme fatales in Noirs was Joan Bennett.
blanche-2 - Lanza does not walk off the stage "right before he strangles Desdemona"; this is their Act 3 confrontation. He doesn't kill her until their 2nd confrontation late in Act 4 - with intermission better than an hour later! I've been listening to him for 67 years, have everything he ever did, and Lanza does not "scoop a lot", and certainly not in the sense of scooping as a means to get to an otherwise difficult top note, and if he tends to "oversing" (whatever that may mean), what is to be said about Del Monaco, Rysanek and Bastianini (naming only singers of his own time, all three of whom were very great opera stars)? As for prior "divas and divos" of the silver screen, I might point out that Nino Martini played the same kind of working man of the earth tenor roles in the 1930s as did Lanza two decades later. The comment that voices shouldn't be darkening at 34 is somewhat nonsensical. Voices darken when they darken, some early, some late. Domingo was singing Otello at 34 even before his voice darkened appropriately, and he's still singing at 77. Vinay, a famous OTELLO, was a famous Otello from his 36th year, and his voice was so dark he'd been singing baritone into his mid-30s. This is the first time I have ever seen an allegation of Lanza sexually harassing his female co-stars, and I would have to know where THAT came from - certainly not from Grayson, Blyth, Morrow (he didn't like Morrow because she smoked!), Fontaine, Montiel or Allasio.
atlasmb - Lanza was not the PREMIER tenor of his time. He was the most famous one (thanks to Hollywood), but that is not the same thing at all. "Premier" would indicate that he was the most important opera tenor on the planet, against whom all others were compared and found wanting. He was not, and they were not. Today, for example, the PREMIER tenor of his time is probably Jonas Kaufmann, but the most famous one is surely Andrea Bocelli, who is close to being a joke among serious opera lovers and musicians. Like him or not, not even detractors ever joked about Lanza's voice.